If you've visited the website or seen our Facebook page recently - you've probably seen us talk about our raffle coming up in November!

This is going to be our big fundraiser for the year - or I am really praying that it is! We're selling raffle tickets for $10.00 each now through Halloween.

We really need to sell at least 200 tickets in order to make this work. There is no maximum to the number of tickets that can be sold...which is great!

The drawing of the tickets will be held each day in November, with two tickets being drawn on Black Friday! Each day there will be a winner posted with the ticket number, the item and their name. You do not have to be present to win and shipping is free too!!

Each item is from Thirty-One Gifts and all items will be worth $30.00 or more!

Your ticket(s) can win multiple times as well - even more awesome! We will be using random.org to pick the numbers each day and we will post the screenshot of that as well.

Each day there will be a posting to our Facebook page and the Facebook event. We will ship the items on Mondays and each Monday I will recap on the blog each winner and item (as I cannot always get onto it from home).

You can purchase tickets online using our website - there is a PayPal Add to cart button under the event information. You can also mail a payment too (check preferred and tickets will be mailed once the check has cleared). Those that are local can send cash or meet in person.

There are many awesome items that will be included in the raffle, but we have to sell the tickets in order to even purchase the items.

All funds after the purchase of the items will be used towards our 501(c)(3) filing fee and the remainder from that will be divided between the other legal filings we need to do (pattern copyrights, etc) and most importantly supplies for making gowns and postage expenses.

We really need everyone's help in getting this event out to those who are wanting to support Gracie's Gowns, but also would like to win a little something too!!

Please share the event with those that you know, invite them to the FB event, share with your friends, families and co-workers about Gracie's Gowns too! Tell them about the raffle and the great items we will be giving away! There is something for everyone - and hey, you might even get from Christmas gifts out of the way too!

Today, I debated about whether or not to post or say much of anything about the events on September 11th, 2001. Not because I don't value the importance or the gravity of the terrorist attacks, but because even as an adult, it is just too hard to digest some days.

The first I knew about anything was in my English class - my sophmore year of high school. The teachers seemed out of sort, they were hiding something awful, but like they were waiting for the right moment and way to say something, not that they didn't want us to know. Then our principal came made the announcement that the Pentagon had been attacked and that anyone affected could leave class and come to the counselors office. That was the first and last thing I heard about it until I got home from school.

As my usual, I turned on CNN to watch the latest world events while working on homework - but instead I was glued to the news station. The first image I saw was of a man jumping from the towers to his death...only it wasn't an image, it was a live video feed from earlier in the day...I then watched the towers crash down and the smoke, ashes and everything else plummet to the ground like a bomb was being dropped. I was angry...I was shocked...I was in tears. I couldn't even believe what had happened and what would happen from there on out.

So while catching a quick bite to eat before teaching tonight, they had CNN on in Dairy Queen...I was glued to the images taken from today and taken this day twelve years ago. I was in tears and when the anchor said "it seems like people just don't care anymore," I just had to post something today. The images that pained me the most were the survivors. The widows, the children, the workers that have suffered mentally and physically from that day...the ones that have been forgotten the most. They are why we should never forget, they daily pay the sacrifice from twelve years ago, they deal with the hurt every second of the day...if only for them...we should never forget.

A friend of mine from high school and in marching band wrote a blog today as well, and it included pictures from the memorial in NYC, but with them was something that I didn't know anything about. The Survivor Tree. In the rubble workers found green leaves...they cleared around it and found this tree you see here.

Barely living, scarred and burned, but still had life. It is a survivor - it showed there was hope in the living, there can be rebirth out of the disaster and despite the worst pains from the attacks - life can and must go on.

The workers sent the tree to a nursery (by the way the tree is a pear tree) to be cared for in hopes that it truly would survive and grow. It was cared for and has been planted at the current memorial in NYC.

It is a living symbol to never forget, but to live life, to show our nation that there is hope when we work together and care for each other. It is a testimony to the heart of the American dream and spirit. The principles that we are founded on, that no matter what there is always hope...you just have to have faith.

So never forget the importance of today - never forget those left behind...the survivors...never lose hope or faith. Keep fighting the great fight to protect our freedom and never take for granted the day we have been given. I am closing this post with the picture below of what the Survivor Tree looks like now (from this past spring) - there is always hope for the future, you just have to care enough to make it happen.

As I had posted on our Facebook page - over the weekend the church our family first attended in the area, but also where I still attend and lead worship at the Lakeside Service on Sunday mornings celebrated their 200th Anniversary!Elk Creek Baptist Church was founded in 1813 on a little hill in Mineral, Virginia - it has survived some of the craziest times in the history of the United States...though I think the next 200 years may be even harder.

This little church has withstood the Civil War, multicultural differences, awful weather, next to no attendance at times, and even more recently a massive earthquake that most of us wondered if the church had even survived. It did have structural damage - but amazingly survived compared to most of the buildings in the area from that time. God was protecting his house.

Here is a picture I took last year from Easter - at the lakeside service. Can't you just feel the serenity, the presence of the Holy Spirit right there? I love singing...even more so, love singing praises and worshiping at the lakeside service. It is more than just going to church...it is being IN church...where God is and feeling his creation while there!

Okay now back to the 200th anniversary service and why I am even blogging today about it. There was a guest preacher and I wish I could remember his name right now, but I cannot. His sermon was about when Jesus fed the crowd of 5,000 men with just a 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish...not to mention the leftovers afterwards (also not counting women and children that were there as well).

The sermon lined out what Jesus did time and time again - he took the bread, he broke the bread, he blessed the bread and he gave it to the people. It didn't matter the amount of bread - it didn't matter at all...he made it work and work to the glory of the kingdom.

As a little girl - I remember wishing on dandelions. I love this image...I can see myself here, I can see my oldest here. I can remember all the things I would wish, hope and pray for through the dandelions. It was my prayer many of times for the safety of my father while deployed in the Navy, but even more so it was my prayer to one day make a difference in the lives of many.

As I went to start making hospital gowns for children - I never imagined that Gracie's Gowns would become just that, but that it would become what it is today. It has been an amazing journey, but I have also realized it is more than just me...it is a ministry to the kingdom of God and one that he has not only inspired me to use my time and talents for, but one he is blessing and giving to each of you.

The past month and a half have been hard - I won't lie. With restructuring, rewriting and once again being the only person working on gowns there have been so many times I have wanted to give up. And then I heard this sermon on Sunday.

I don't have much to give - I have a wall in my kitchen, the limited time during the day and the late hours at night, I have my own intermediate sewing abilities and limited funds...but I have the passion and the heart for children who are hurting, children who are in need of comfort and a smile. That sermon was meant just for me.

I have given to God what I do have, he has taken it - the past month and a half he has allowed it to be broken, not as punishment, but as a humbling experience and reminder that it all about the children, His children, and to remind them they are loved beyond all measure. He has blessed Gracie's Gowns with your constant support, new families we've met, new experience and even great opportunities in the future. But most of all he has given this ministry to each of the 840 families we've reached individually, not including their friends, families and those who have just happened to find us.

He has turned a home-based, one-person trying to make a difference into something so much greater and I cannot even begin to thank him enough for all of it.

So remember - it may be a lot that you have to offer, but if God has a part in whatever it is...he will make it work. It won't be easy, there will be bumps in the road, but at the end of the day, it will be worth it and your passion and efforts will be multiplied to bless others.